Ex-John Lewis chief to head Crown Estate

Thursday 23 July 2009 13.55 EDT
First published on Thursday 23 July 2009 13.55 EDT

The Crown Estate has appointed Sir Stuart Hampson as its chairman, making the former John Lewis Partnership boss one of the most powerful men in UK property.

His appointment comes at a delicate time for the Crown Estate whose huge collection of property assets in the year to March collapsed in value by 18% to £6bn, the first time the estate had lost value since 1993.

Despite the most challenging property markets for a generation, the Crown still managed to return £226.5m to the Treasury. Revenue from its sprawling portfolio of offices, shops, agricultural land and offshore marine assets has exploded from £187m in 1999 to £304m this year. Surpluses have increased from £132m to £226.5m during the same period.

Hampson's urgent task will be to ensure the Crown Estate holds its value as tenants increasingly go out of business. Property insiders believe a wave of tenant defaults could see rental income dry up across Britain, which would put the Crown Estate, like other big landowners, in jeopardy.

Hampson, 62, is well regarded in business circles, having overseen a resurgence in the John Lewis department store and Waitrose supermarket business, where he was chairman for 14 years. He left the firm in 2007 after the announcement of huge bonuses for the store's entire workforce.

Hampson is also a former senior civil servant and has a wealth of experience in farming and urban renewal. He recently stepped down as a non-executive at ITV and is a government adviser most recently helping the NHS on leadership issues.

A former leading member of London First, the business lobby group, he will be all too familiar with the challenges facing the Crown in reviving Regent Street, which it owns and where it has spent tens of millions refurbishing buildings behind their listed facades. With 14.8m sq ft of commercial property, the Crown also owns land and buildings in Kensington and around Regents Park as well as 2,000 residential properties and 146,000 hectares of agricultural land and forests.